Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Pedophile in Custody; Tracking Online Predators; Report: Mattel to Announce Another Recall of Toys Made in China

Aired August 14, 2007 - 06:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome once again. It's Tuesday, August 14th.
I'm Kiran Chetry.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN ANCHOR: John Roberts on a well deserved vacation.

I'm Rob Marciano, sitting in.

CHETRY: And we're glad to have you with us today.

MARCIANO: Thanks.

CHETRY: And we begin with a major development and a story that we've been following. It's generated a lot of outrage for our AMERICAN MORNING viewers, and it's moved some parents into action. It's about self-proclaimed pedophile Jack McClellan.

He was run out of Washington State for his disturbing Web site where he commented on little girls and the best places to watch them. Then there was a lawsuit filed in Santa Clarita, California, to keep him away -- 30 feet away from children there. That was then expanded to include the entire state of California.

And then here we are today. He is arrested in Los Angeles, two times in one day, after being spotted near a child care facility on the UCLA campus with a camera, according to police. McClellan is accused of violating a restraining order that would ban him from coming within 30 feet of anyone under 18 in the entire state.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Chris Lawrence is live now on the UCLA campus.

And we're hearing from McClellan himself. I mean, this individual has not been shy about speaking to reporters who ask him about his situation. It's really what got him so much attention in the first place.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kiran. He has been very open about the fact that he is attracted to younger girls, although he says that he would not do anything illegal.

You may wonder how he got arrested twice in less than 12 hours. The first time, as you mentioned, was because he was standing outside of the UCLA daycare facility. Police picked him up but then they set a court date for him, told him to stay away from the campus, and they let him go. But McClellan didn't leave the campus immediately, and that is when he started talking to CNN affiliate KTLA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK MCCLELLAN, SELF-DESCRIBED PEDOPHILE: It was an honest mistake. I had been on the campus for a couple of hours before that at other places. I didn't go right to that spot because I didn't -- I'm not familiar with the campus. I don't go to school there.

Honestly, I didn't know it was there. The reason I was on UCLA was because I didn't think there would be virtually any minors there and I thought I could kind of blend in as a student.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you attracted to children?

MCCLELLAN: Yes, sure, girls. I mean, I've admitted that many times, but I have never done anything criminal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After you did what you did today though, why should you be allowed to walk around freely?

MCCLELLAN: Well, that wasn't my decision. That was the decision at the police department, and they just decided that it wasn't that grave of a situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: Yes, someone saw that interview live about five or six hours ago, and that was when the police came in and arrested him for trespassing. McClellan says his camera didn't have any batteries in it -- Kiran.

CHETRY: You know, the other interesting thing, Chris, is it's really turned into this grassroots movement on the part of parents. It was actually just a random lawyer from Santa Clarita, California, that went to a judge to get this restraining order to keep him 30 feet away from kids, and it's parents who have been following him around videotaping him to try to make sure that his face is out there so other parents are aware.

LAWRENCE: Yes, that's right. In fact, a lawyer is trying to get a permanent injunction that would bar him from being near any child in the state of California.

The problem is, up until now, he has had no criminal record whatsoever. He is very open about the fact that he is attracted to little girls. He calls them LGs, and he talks about the fact that he stakes out the places where they are likely to congregate -- parks, public libraries, fast-food restaurants. But up until this point, he hasn't broken any law.

CHETRY: All right. We'll see what happens today. Thank you -- thank you, Chris Lawrence.

MARCIANO: Well, New Jersey is trying to make the Internet safer from sexual predators. The state attorney general asking a dozen social networking Web sites for help in tracking convicted sex offenders.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho joins us with that story.

Good morning, Alina.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Rob.

You know, Connecticut and North Carolina, other States have done this already. You may recall, MySpace recently announced it found 29,000 convicted sex offenders with profiles on its site. As one official said, that's just the tip of the predator iceberg. So now New Jersey's attorney general is asking MySpace and a dozen other social networking sites like Facebook and Friendster to see if they can find convicted sex offenders with profiles on their sites and then delete them.

Now, how do they do that? Well, MySpace, for one, has linked up with a company that has a database with the names of 600,000 sex offenders in the U.S. It's a way to cross-check, really. And that database, we should mention, is updated regularly. Now, part of the problem is many sex offenders may be using aliases, and some social networking sites have suggested the action by state officials is really nothing more than grandstanding and will only create a false sense of security.

We should also tell you that some States, including New York, has laws requiring convicted sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses, just like they would their street addresses. MySpace says legislation on the federal level would help. State officials say social networking sites really need to do some of the work themselves. They want age verification and parental consent as a condition to join.

But Kiran, as you alluded to earlier, really all of this begins at home. Parents really need to monitor their kids on the Internet because, as one official said, it's really become a virtual playground for predators.

CHETRY: It really has. All right. Alina Cho, thanks so much.

CHO: My pleasure.

MARCIANO: Thanks, Alina.

Well, two new headlines out of Hawaii this morning -- an earthquake and Hurricane Flossie. A 5.3 magnitude earthquake hitting the big island overnight, south of Hilo. It briefly interrupted cell service and triggered a small landslide, but so far there are no reports of big damage or anybody hurt.

And Hawaii is already on alert for Hurricane Flossie. This is the view from Flossie from outer space. Pretty cool, actually.

The National Weather Service has the big island under a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning. Flossie is expected to come within 85 miles of the island. A state of emergency has been declared.

And there's another bridge collapse to report this morning. At least 22 people are dead in central China. The bridge was under construction and more than a hundred workers were on it when it crashed down across a highway during rush hour. Sixty-four people have been rescued but 46 are missing.

And an autopsy planned today for another pro wrestler found mysteriously dead. Forty-four-year-old Brian Adams wrestled under the name "Crush" until he left the WWE in 2001.

A police report posted on TMZ.com says Adams' wife found her husband in bed unconscious and not breathing in their Tampa home. According to "The Miami Herald," Adams was arrested in 1995 and charged with receiving anabolic steroids through the mail. Adams' sudden death comes two months after pro wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his wife and son and then killed himself.

To Utah now and the desperate search for six missing miners. Rescuers say they are focusing on the back of the mine, where they see a lot of space, signs that there's good air flow. And crews are also ready to start drilling a new hole.

Pictures taken underground Sunday show only a tool bag and twisted conveyor belt. Rescuers have cleared 680 feet of rubble, but they're still two-thirds of the way from where they expect to find the six trapped miners.

Last night, mine owner Bob Murray talked about conditions inside the collapsed mine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB MURRAY, PRESIDENT & CEO, MURRAY ENERGY CORP.: There are many voids there on all entries which would provide much air for their survival and to sustain their lives. There's water and there is two and a half to five and a half feet of void space everywhere we've looked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARCIANO: Six miners have been missing now for eight days.

Well, a lot of you, no doubt, want to help the families of the trapped miners. CNN has information on ways that you can get involved in this effort, as well as a host of other issues that we bring you daily.

To find out how you can impact your world, go to CNN.com/impact.

CHETRY: Well, it's time now to check in with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents for a look at some of the other stories new this morning.

Our Jacqui Jeras is in the CNN weather center watching Hurricane Flossie in the Pacific and another potential problem in the Gulf of Mexico.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: Toy maker Mattel reportedly set to announce yet another recall of toys made in China.

Our Ali Velshi is watching this one for us.

So they're not coming out with specifics yet, but we know it's probably going to be another big one.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. In fact, there are no -- there's no confirmation at all from Mattel or the Consumer Product Safety Commission yet, although we do have calls, repeated calls into both of those organizations to find out what this is about. There are reports of yet another recall.

Now, I've got to tell you, this is the kind of thing you've got to double check when you look at it, because didn't we just get through one of these? On August 2nd, Mattel recalled 1.5 million toys under the Fisher-Price name. Now we're hearing there are more. It could be hundreds of thousands.

Look at these numbers. This was from August 2000 at Mattel, 2.5 million. From November, 2006, 2.4 million. Then 1.4 million.

Again, these ones we're talking about today are toys made in China, possibly including a dye cast car that has lead paint in it, possibly including some toys that have little magnets that little kids can swallow. We are waiting to find out what this is about.

Often what happens is a company which informs the Consumer Product Safety Commission about a recall jointly organizes a time at which they'll release that information, because what it does is it allows stores to get that off the shelf so that, for whatever reason, people don't end up buying more of them and then they make the announcement. So we are trying to get confirmation about this, but it looks like yet another recall of toys.

These toys reportedly being made in China. We will keep you up to date and let you know what this is about and what toys you need to pull out of your toy box if you've got them at home -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. Ali Velshi, thanks so much.

And you know, Ali mentioned that it is confusing for parents to try to figure out which of these toys have been recalled. We're going to be speaking with Greg Hunter, our consumer reporter, about a half- hour right now to help parents break it down as well -- Rob.

MARCIANO: Kiran, there's news this morning about one of the leading causes of blindness. Macular degeneration affects more than a million baby boomers and 10 million Americans overall. Now there's a new study out.

And CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in Atlanta with the details.

Dr. Sanjay?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Rob.

Yes, this is really interesting to me. Actually, finding a relationship between the leading cause of blindness in the western world, which is macular degeneration, age-related macular degeneration, as you said, and smoking. There's a new study coming out saying that if you're a current smoker, you're four times more likely to develop this problem of macular degeneration.

Now, I'll tell you, by the time most people are around 75 years old, about 15 percent of those people will actually develop macular degeneration, and it can be a real problem there for your vision, especially your central vision.

Now I want to show you something here. We actually have my girlfriend here, Dominique (ph). And I want to show you the eyeball here.

You know, typically, light comes in through the cornea over here, and then it's sort of refracted to the back of the lens here, the retina. And right in the middle of that, the highest priced real estate, is actually something known as the macula, which is the very back of the eye.

I've got you a better diagram here to show you what we're talking about.

Again, you can see a light coming in through the pupil. All that's refracted back on to the macula. If you lose that vision, you are really losing some of your best vision, your color vision, your central vision, some of your most important vision.

Now, exactly why smoking would cause a problem such as macular degeneration is unclear. People thought it was because of the blood vessels in the back of the eyes, some of the smallest blood vessels in the body. That doesn't appear to be the problem though.

There is some other cause, but we're just not exactly sure what that mechanism is. We do know, Rob, as you know, that smoking is obviously bad for you for a lot of reasons, and if you quit now, you can avoid a lot of those health disasters later on down the road.

MARCIANO: No doubt about that. By the way, your wife has nothing to worry about, about your girlfriend over there.

GUPTA: Very "Terminator" looking, isn't she?

MARCIANO: We've got a pretty big eye here so we get an idea of what you're talking about.

Probably a bigger question is, you know, there's a lot of people who smoked when they were younger and now don't smoke. Are they still at risk to this?

GUPTA: You know, it's interesting. We talk a lot about smoking and when you quit and the benefit you can achieve there. It does improve in terms of getting some less effect from the smoking on your eyes. But not that much.

So I mentioned it was about four times more likely to develop macular degeneration. If you're a former smoker, it's about three times more likely. So some benefit, but you're still at risk.

And the message here is not to just worry about it but do something about it. Get the regular eye checkups, especially starting around age 40. There are some potential treatments for this sort of thing.

MARCIANO: Dr. Sanjay Gupta with the latest on macular degeneration.

Thanks, Sanjay.

GUPTA: All right. Thanks.

MARCIANO: There's a new federal report now on infighting between agencies, fighting amongst themselves, rather, than the terrorists. It says that terror cases are being dropped because of bad blood between the FBI and immigration agents. Homeland Security says some ICE agents avoided certain leads rather than get the FBI involved.

Jurors in the terrorism trial of Jose Padilla could get the case as early as today. The government says Padilla is an enemy combatant guilty of supporting terrorism.

Kelli Arena joins us live from Washington with more on not only this case, but also what is at stake as it gets prosecuted -- Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: You know, Kiran, this whole story has been extraordinary from the very start.

Jose Padilla, as you know, is a U.S. citizen. And he was arrested back in 2002. Declared an enemy combatant, he spent years in a military brig without being charged.

We heard from high-level U.S. officials about how he was allegedly going to try to set off a dirty bomb in the U.S. Then he is abruptly released from military custody, charged not with anything relating to the original allegation, but instead with being part of a support network for overseas terror attacks.

Now, his trial has been equally surreal. Padilla's lawyers didn't even put a defense witness on the stand last week before resting their case.

Now, some legal experts suggest they didn't even have to, because they say the government's case is weak. Now, we do expect, as you said, a jury to start deliberating today. And whatever they decide may not even be the end of all this -- Kiran. CHETRY: Right. So what if they find him not guilty? Does he just walk?

ARENA: Right. Well, that's the million-dollar question. I mean, if this guy is anything close to what the government says he is, I mean, he would be considered a danger to the U.S. But you can't deport him. He's American.

Does he just walk free? Does the government declare him an enemy combatant again?

I mean, this all sounds very preposterous, but legal experts say that it is a possibility. So we're going to have to wait and see. We've never been in this situation before.

CHETRY: Yes. It will certainly be a landmark decision today, possibly.

Kelli Arena, thanks so much.

MARCIANO: "Quick Hits" now. A quarter billion dollars, that's Mitt Romney's estimated network. The former venture capitalist finally revealed his fortune in a new finance report. Romney has more wealth than any other candidate in the '08 race.

And South Carolina's Democrats will keep their primary on January 29th, the same day as Florida. South Carolina Republicans moved their date up to the 19th to keep ahead of Florida.

And Elizabeth Edwards sounding off again. This time she is taking shots at Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. So will it help her husband's presidential campaign?

We're going to take a look next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: Welcome back to the most news in the morning.

Got some incredible pictures for you. Check these out.

First off, a wildfire started by lightning in Siding, Wyoming. Another wildfire in Wyoming closed down the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park.

And this video in from Erie, Pennsylvania, courtesy of our affiliate WICU. A house leveled by what appears to be a propane gas explosion. Police say the homeowner was slightly hurt.

And a fireball taller than the treetops after a construction crew nicked a natural gas price in Ft. Collins, Colorado. It burned for five hours before crews could shut down the line. One worker was sent to the hospital.

CHETRY: Some political hot topics now, and there's a lot of them today. We start with Elizabeth Edwards, wife of presidential candidate John Edwards. She is speaking her mind yet again, taking on her husband's chief opponents, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Joining me from Chicago this morning, CNN contributor and host of "The Roland Martin Show," Roland Martin himself. This is being simulcast, by the way, on WVON.

Good morning, Roland. Good to see you.

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see you as well, Kiran.

CHETRY: So we have Elizabeth Edwards in another no-holds-barred interview which is making some news this morning. She attacked both Hillary Clinton on her commitment to health care and for not apologizing good enough, I guess you could say, for her vote on the Iraq war. And then also Barack Obama's anti-war stance, and she referred to him saying that "You are going to get people behaving in a holier than thou way."

Has Elizabeth Edwards gone too far?

MARTIN: Well, I think first and foremost, the tough (ph) for Edwards in this political race could very well be Elizabeth Edwards. Again, I mean, politics is a contact sport, and so I think what she is doing is clearly trying to draw the lines. And again, I mean, she is taking much tougher rhetoric against the candidates than her husband, John Edwards.

So maybe as opposed to providing some advice regarding the other candidates, maybe she should tell her husband John, toughen up and get in the game, because frankly he has not really been going after the other candidates, and so he needs to. Granted, he is leading Iowa or running neck and neck, but the national polls, he is not doing quite as well.

CHETRY: Right. So is having your wife as an attack dog his strategy? And if so, is it an effective one?

MARTIN: Well, I don't necessarily know if that's his strategy. You know, he may be saying, Elizabeth, hey, slow it down, but she's ramping it up.

And look, we've always seen this where, again, spouses have become critical campaigners. I mean, Bill Clinton, President Bill Clinton, he's been on the campaign trail, has not been as tough on the other candidates. He's been more pushing up his wife. But again, Michelle Obama, she's on the campaign trail. All of their spouses are.

And so it's a whole different ball game now. And what you find, though, typically find, Kiran, that the tougher comments come in print interviews, as opposed to television or radio interviews, where they could be replayed over and over again. So, frankly, it's a good strategy.

CHETRY: Yes, you're right.

Yesterday at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Barack Obama compared the campaign process to hazing, and he also spoke with a voter who warned him, you know, don't turn your campaign against other Democrats. Is his image as the Washington outsider, the one who brings a message of hope and above-the-fray type of politicking in trouble?

MARTIN: Well, this is the difficulty with how he has framed that, because you have to engage. You simply can't run a race saying, I'm above all of that, just focus on my record. I mean, let's just cut to the chase. That doesn't work.

Every time you have a voter, say, I don't like negative campaigning, well, guess what? You know, they can say that, but negative campaigning works.

We can show race after race after race where someone goes negative and they have an impact on the other campaign. And so it's a reality of politics. But I do think, Kiran, there's a difference between saying, hey, I am going to show you the differences between my campaign and someone else's.

I don't see that as negative campaigning. I simply see that as saying, look, here is the difference between me and this person. And so, yes, he has a difficult balancing act because he has said, I'm not going to be involved in the politics of the past.

The problem is, any time there's a perception that he is negative, everybody is going to raise that. Remember, it was Senator Clinton who said, wait a minute, what happened to the campaign of hope? Even she sort of mocked his campaign over his criticism over her war vote.

CHETRY: Right. Boy, you're motoring through a radio show. It sounds like you have a little frog in your throat today and you're soldiering on anyway.

MARTIN: Well, I was at the Black Journalist Convention last week in Las Vegas and had to give a speech on Sunday to the Alphas (ph) in Orlando. So -- but I still got it. I can still talk.

CHETRY: Oh wow. You lost your voice. I heard from T.J. Holmes it was a blast as well, so you're still recovering weekly.

MARTIN: What happens in Vegas will stay in Vegas, Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes, that's all I heard from T.J. as well.

All right. Roland, great talking to you. Thanks for being with us this morning.

MARTIN: I appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

MARCIANO: The problem is, we can tell by how T.J. looked what happened in Vegas. (CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: It was written all over his face.

MARCIANO: Exactly.

Well, Darryl Strawberry in trouble with the law again. Why the government has filed suit against the former slugger.

That story is coming up when AMERICAN MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

Some more legal trouble for Darryl Strawberry. The government filing a lawsuit in West Palm Beach against the former New York Mets slugger over back taxes.

He was indicted back in 1994 on federal tax evasion charges. He pled guilty the following year, was sentenced to six months home confinement. He was ordered to repay $350,000 in taxes, but then with all of the penalties and the interest, the government says he still owes nearly $500,000 in unpaid taxes.

MARCIANO: And to another former athlete who's had a few issues with the law. A deal could be announced today about O.J. Simpson's book, "If I Did It".

The Goldman family has given rights to the book, and now a literary agent says the book will be published. The Goldmans are considered calling it "Confessions of a Double Murderer". That would be a different choice for sure.

CHETRY: Certainly.

Well, here's a look at one story coming up that you can't miss in a couple of minutes, the role of antioxidant supplements and whether or not they help your heart.

Do you take Vitamin C and other vitamins?

MARCIANO: I take a megaman vitamin.

CHETRY: A megaman vitamin?

MARCIANO: Yes. A lot of good it has done me.

CHETRY: That's how you got so tall.

MARCIANO: Yes, that's it.

So you're telling me it's not good? Antioxidants in there not doing it for us?

CHETRY: Well, that's a question we of course have to leave up to Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He knows it all when it comes to this stuff.

But they did a study on more than 8,000 women to find out, you know, are we wasting our money when we take these type of vitamins? I know we all do it. The findings coming up.

MARCIANO: Stay with us.

AMERICAN MORNING will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: A live shot for you in the old stomping -- the old stomping grounds? That's where I live.

CHETRY: You're here for two days and now it's your old stomping ground.

MARCIANO: Two days and I'm already moving to New York.

The ATL -- there it is, WXIA, our affiliate out there. Traffic flowing. Temperatures will certainly be rising. They don't call it hot Atlanta for nothing -- 98 in the shade right now.

I'm glad I'm not down there. At least right now. I look forward to the weekend.

It's Tuesday, August 14th.

John Roberts is off. I'm Rob Marciano.

CHETRY: Good to have you with us, by the way.

MARCIANO: Thank you.

CHETRY: Enjoy New York City. It was miserable last week, but this week it's nice.

I'm Kiran Chetry.

Thanks for being with us once again.

(NEWSBREAK)

MARCIANO: Well, it's getting harder to be hopeful at the Crandall Canyon Mine in Utah. There's no sign of life from the six coal miners that were trapped there nine days ago during a collapse. Rescuers are drilling a third hole, and considering drilling a fourth, to where they hope the trapped miners will be.

CNN's John Zarrella is live in Huntington, Utah for us. Good morning John. Anything new for us this morning?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rob, drilling of that third hole is well under way this morning. We're, of course, at the mine site. Now that third hole is going about 1,300 feet from where the other two holes were drilled, and that's because mine officials believe that it's possible the miners found a spot, a protected area, at the very end of the mine, which is about 1,300 feet into this cavity.

Now yesterday, late in the afternoon, they also released some video that was taken from the camera that was lowered down into that second of the 8-5/8ths-inch holes they drilled over the weekend, and did show survivable space, but even with enhanced lighting it was very difficult to see much of what was underground. But they did say the roof line was holding good.

Now, Bob Murray, the president of the mining company, said that efforts to reach the miners through the main tunnel is finally starting to move a little faster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB MURRAY, PRES. & CEO: We're driving underground toward the miners. We've advanced now 680 feet. Conditions are getting a little bit better, and we're moving at a more rapid rate now. That would put us about one-third of the way to the miners.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Now it's still going to take a couple of days to get that third hole drilled, and they do have, as you mentioned, the plans for the fourth hole, but they have not decided yet where exactly that is going to be. And sadly to say, still, more than eight days into this tragedy, still no sign or word from those trapped miners -- Rob.

MARCIANO: John, there are reports floating around the mine may have known months ago from a survey of experts that there could be trouble like this. I know our focus is on trying to rescue these guys, but is the blame game going on at all right now?

ZARRELLA: Well, the mine officials have continued to emphasize that their plan for mining there was approved by engineers that they brought in, was also approved by the Federal Mine and Safety Administration, and that they absolutely did nothing wrong, and they insist that any investigation that comes on the heels of this tragedy will bear out the fact that they did everything right -- Rob.

MARCIANO: We certainly hope it's just a tragic accident. Thank you, John Zarrella, in central Utah.

Well, millions of people take daily antioxidant supplements to stay healthy, but a new study says that certain supplements are really no help for women's hearts.

CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at the CNN Center with details.

You know, you read about it every day,. every commercial, the labeling. It at all says contains antioxidants for heart health.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I know. Excuse me! CHETRY: Were you in Las Vegas with T.J. as well, and Roland?

MARCIANO: And your girlfriend?

GUPTA: I'm sorry. It's interesting, about a third of Americans actually take some sort of antioxidant supplements, and there's a lot of claims out there about how well they might work for things like memory, things like stroke, heart disease. The problem is, and this is one of the biggest questions I get, in particular, is there are no really big studies out there looking at just how effective these things are.

Now there is one study that we're talking about today, actually looking at the relationship between a couple of different antioxidants, Vitamin C, Vitamin E and beta carotene, and heart disease specifically in women.

And what they found -- again, this is one of the largest studies out there -- that there does not appear to be any benefit. If you are taking these antioxidants to ward off heart disease later on, it's probably not going to help you at all.

Now, interestingly, the same study did show some benefit when it came to stroke, but they weren't looking for that specifically, so more studies are going to need to be done there.

But again, big study, looking at this relationship between antioxidants and heart disease in women showing no benefit here -- Kiran.

CHETRY: So what do you do then? Antioxidants that are found in foods, is that something to keep in mind as opposed to the supplements?

GUPTA: This is something I researched quite a bit when I was writing that book "Chasing Life." You know, there's a lot of good stuff in foods. We know that. There's the antioxidants, but there's also these phyto-chemicals (ph). There's fiber.

I think the problem is trying to get the good stuff, the antioxidant, and put it into a pill form just doesn't seem to work really well. Having it in the food alone does seem to be of benefit.

So you know, when you're taking the antioxidants in combination with all of those other things that's already present in food, it seems to allow a better delivery system to your body and you get more benefit from it.

So eat right, yes, absolutely. You can still have some benefit from antioxidants, but more so it seems if it's in the food.

CHETRY: All right. But your final recommendation, would you still pop a multivitamin?

GUPTA: Yes. You know, one interesting thing about this it showed no benefit, but also no harm. There've been previous studies which showed it might actually cause some harm; that didn't appear so in this study.

The only thing I will say is that, A, they can be expensive, and, B, we live in this society where you think, I'll take an antioxidant, therefore I can continue to smoke, therefore I can continue to eat bad food. That, obviously, is not the case here. Eat right, and if you want to take the antioxidants as well, go ahead and do that.

CHETRY: All right, Sanjay Gupta, thank you.

GUPTA: Thank you.

CHETRY: But the way, if you have a medical question for Sanjay, you can send it to his mailbag. Head to CNN.com/Americanmorning, and Sanjay will answer your questions every Thursday on AMERICAN MORNING.

(NEWSBREAK)

CHETRY: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, lead in children's jewelry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is something that you would think would come out of a movie, but it's not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Potentially deadly imports from China -- food, toothpaste, more toys, and now jewelry. How leaders in one city are taking the task of policing imports into their own hands, next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

MARCIANO: We're following breaking news this morning. More Mattel toys may be coming off the shelves. Mattel is getting ready to announce another major recall that could affect thousands more toys.

And While tubes of toothpaste in hotels are being pulled from circulation after showing it contained a toxic chemical used to make antifreeze. The company supplies the toothpaste to hotels and resorts in more than a dozen countries. All of it coming as one city's health commissioner is making a major push to keep lead out of children's jewelry.

Greg Hunter is here with more on that.

Good morning, Greg.

GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Rob.

You know, you've heard about that lead in toys, but what about lead in children's jewelry? Yes, little trinkets that often end up in the mouths of toddlers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTER (voice-over): One million Fisher Price toys recalled over concerns about potentially hazardous lead paint, including Sesame Street characters like Elmo and Big Bird. The items all manufactured in China.

Another potentially dangerous Chinese import, health officials say, inexpensive children's jewelry, that can also contain lead, and when swallowed can be deadly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE The problem is sometimes parents don't know that their child has swallowed something like this until the symptoms come, and at that point, it can be very difficult for the doctors to figure out.

HUNTER: Last year, a 4-year-old Minneapolis boy died after swallowing a charm containing lead, causing seizures, vomiting, and respiratory failure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is something that you would think would come out of a movie. But it's not.

HUNTER: Baltimore City health commissioner, pediatrician Josh Sharpstein (ph) is waging his own war against lead in jewelry, which, unlike lead in toys, is not against the law.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a poison lead pill.

HUNTER: He sends his own inspectors out to randomly purchase items for testing. They found this Spider-man ring, manufactured in China, contained more than 12 percent lead by weight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If a child swallowed this ring, it could definitely cause them harm. I can't say for sure whether it could be enough harm to cause death, but it could potentially affect their brain, affect their kidneys, after other parts of their body and cause a significant problem.

HUNTER: "Dollar Tree" stores which sold the ring told CNN it has pulled the item from its 3,000 stores nationwide, and it said it was working with manufacturers to make sure the proper procedures are followed.

The Baltimore inspectors also found lead in this ring, sold at Wal-Mart a year ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we notified Wal-Mart that this product had high levels of lead, they took it off the market in all of their stores around the world.

HUNTER: Wal-Mart told CNN, "We share the same concerns as our customers on product safety."

The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it has stepped up efforts to get lead jewelry out of stores, but spot checks continue to show 20 percent of kids' jewelry contains unsafe levels of lead.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTER: So what does all this mean to you? I got three things to talk about. First, let's talk about that toy recall. Let's take a look at this phone. This is Kiran's phone from her house, for her child. It's a lovely little phone. If you go on the Web site, you see this phone, and you think, uh, that's a picture of this phone, it must be recalled.

Well, in this case, this phone looks exactly like the recalled phone, but this was made in 2000. The recalled phones and the recalled toys that happened a week or so ago, 1.5 million, only were produced during April and May of 2007 -- excuse me, April and August of 2007.

Next thing. -- you think, wow, maybe I can get a lead-check device, and that is a good idea. You can get one of these little lead-check devices right here, and if you listen really closely, you can break the chemical inside, shake it up and actually rub the lead test on there, and if it turns pink on the end -- of course, I did and this will not turn pink, because there's no lead in here, it's not a recalled toy -- you've got lead.

The only problem with this thing, or one of the problem, they don't always give consistent readings, and lead in jewelry can be wrapped by varnish and things like that, and so it may be deceiving.

But if you swallow a piece of jewelry wrapped in varnish, or covered in varnish, you're stomach acids can eat it up and it can release the lead.

Finally, you hear about magnets all the time. You think, hey, magnets recalled. What does that mean? Well, let's take a look at this really tight shot here. Here's a little magnet set. You can see how the magnet, you know, reacts.

MARCIANO: So if you swallow that...

HUNTER: So if a kid swallows this -- what happens if a kid swallows a magnet and both sides get caught on one side of the intestine and the other side of the intestine. Well, check this out. This thing can actually block a toddler's intestines, and that's why magnets are so dangerous for little kids to swallow because they can stick together in the wrong place in the child's intestine and cause blockage, and that is big trouble.

MARCIANO: And of all the things you talked about that may be the scariest one right there.

HUNTER: They're all scary. When you think about your kid and you think, do you have lead poisoning? You don't know whether your kid is 10 IQ points lower, or whether they have something wrong with them. It's really hard to detect if your kid is sucking on something with lead. They don't always die, but it can cause damage.

MARCIANO: Keeping an eye out to consumers. Thanks, Greg.

HUNTER: We're looking out for you.

MARCIANO: All right -- Kiran.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

CHETRY: Time now is 53 minutes past the hour. Ali Velshi "Minding Your Business" this morning.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, the numbers are in on mortgage foreclosures. No surprise -- for the first half of this year, they are up over last year.

Now we've been telling you that your most danger of having difficulty with your mortgage if your home is too expensive, or if your mortgage is too high compared to the price of your home, or if you have an adjustable-rate mortgage.

But it also depends on where you live, because there are a number of areas in the country where prices have come down. At the top of the list of the highest proportion of foreclosures in the country is Stockton, California. Many places in California have made the list of urban centers, because there was so much speculation about housing prices. No. 2 on that list is Detroit, Michigan. That wasn't about speculation in housing prices, that was about lots of houses being available because so many people have been laid off. Then Las Vegas. Much of the Southwest again, property values increased a great deal in those areas.

On the bottom of the list, places with the least number of foreclosures, Mcallen, Texas and Greenville, South Carolina and Richmond, Virginia.

So in some of these places, the property values having come down have compounded the problem, because you've got people who have not budgeted for how much they're paying. The rates have gone up because of the adjustable-rate mortgages, and the property values are up.

MARCIANO: Whatever happened to putting 20 percent down?

VELSHI: We would have much less of a problem if that were still around, but if it's a different world now. It's not our parents', or even our grandparents', generation.

CHETRY: Very true. Ali, thank you.

MARCIANO: Thanks, Ali..

CHETRY: Still to come this morning, it will be the tale of the tape, a belly-buster of a new study. Sanjay Gupta is working on this one for us. GUPTA: Good morning. There are dozens of tests out there to predict if you have heart disease or if you're going to develop it, but it turns out one of the best tests might be already something that you have in your house right now. We're going to have that story for you in the next hour of AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com